Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?
My earliest memories of a library can be summed up with one word: Possibilities! I remember going to our neighborhood library and just gazing at the stacks and thinking, “where to begin!?”
I still feel this way today, even though my library habits are now down to a science: request title online, patiently wait until it arrives, zip through automatic check-out, and start reading!
I do love this system, but it has taken the leisurely, browing quality out of my relationship with my library. I now save this sort of meandering for my local bookstores…
What about you? Any interesting library memories?
And, by the way, if you like this topic… “check out” Reading Rooms: America’s Foremost Writers Celebrate Our Public Libraries with Stories, Essays, Poems and Memoirs. It is really good!
I also love the unlimited possibilities that libraries present (so much so that I got married in a library!), but I’m not a very good or frequent patron anymore because I prefer to be able to make notes in my books…and librarians don’t generally appreciate that.
Libraries have always cause me to wonder, “Where do I begin?”
My answer is posted.
I still like to wander the stacks of the library or bookstores for that matter. I don’t know if I like the automatic checkouts at the library makes me miss the interaction.
There is something to be said for quick and easy tho… once in awhile. I like the on-line requesting.
Married in a library! What a great idea…
@Shannon — True… the librarians at my current place aren’t the friendliest, so I appreciate the automatic checkout even more. But I understand what you mean!
@Debbie — The online requesting is especially nice when you read book blogs and get so many good ideas of what to read next!
There was a beautiful brick and stone library directly across the street from my home when I was about six years old. I went there almost every day and spent hours there – not only inside but playing with my dolls snuggled into an outside corner of the building. I loved the smell of the interior and especially all the books on the First Ladies. My favorite one was about Jane Adams. There was a fountain behind the library and I would sit and read books outside listening to the falling water. It was one of my very favorite places to go as a child.
Thank you for your comment! What a lovely memory… and you reminded me of one of my very favorite childhood books, too — Mary Todd Lincoln’s biography!
The only memory I have about libraries in my childhood is that I got in trouble a lot for asking my teachers if I could go there instead of staying in class.
Now, my children and I absolutely LOVE going to the library, with or without a book we are currently reading, to sit in the quiet, surrounded by possibilities, and read until we nearly fall asleep. This is especially cool to me because they are teenagers! Oh, and I, too love to request things online … I especially like the phone call saying my books are ready for pick-up — joy! But browsing is also a must. Thanks for another great post! I have gotten so many wonderful recommendations from you.
Thank you, Julie! You started my day with a smile…
Thank you for reading and I’ll keep the recommendations coming…
Great library memory, too!